“We
are a full-service, highly selective literary agency based in New York City.
Every day we draw on our expertise as former publishers to ensure that the
material we submit stands out. We’re fascinated by how books and ideas spread,
and so we’re deeply involved in all aspects of maximizing a book’s life in the
marketplace – including the digital, film and licensing worlds.

“We’ve
helped journalists and academics discover the nonfiction book they're truly
excited to write – and that mainstream publishers are eager to acquire. We’ve
re-built careers and we’ve launched first-time novelists. Many of our titles
are award winners. We’ve had great success in the international market. Last
year, three of our titles were on theNew York Timesbestseller list, for a total of
seventy-two weeks. Our goal is to build long-lasting careers.”

Anna
is herself an author of children’s books. Her Shlemiel Crooks (Junebug/NewSouth) was a Sydney Taylor Honor Book and a PJ Library
Book. Her book Greenhorn, is being made into an independent.

Anna enjoys
discovering new authors and illustrators. She is looking for "voice,"
the sound and rhythm of an author that could be no one else's, and has a
special interest in children's picture books (author-illustrators only), adult
nonfiction, Judaica, and animal stories.

Include the first
five pages the first five pages of your manuscript
into the body of your email.

The
newest member of the team – and the agent most in need of clients – is
Associate Agent Monica
Odom.She is also the agency's manager of
finance and social media. Monica graduatedsumma cum laudewith a B.A. in English from Montclair
State University, and is now a candidate for her Masters in Publishing from New
York University.

Prior to joining LDA, Monica interned at Joelle Delbourgo
Associates, New Jersey Business Magazine, and MTV Networks' Public Affairs
department.

Monica
is building her client list with a focus on literary fiction, women's fiction
and voice-driven memoir, as well as a focus on nonfiction in the areas of pop
culture, food and cooking, history, politics, and current affairs.

Monica
is looking for writers with big ideas who push the boundaries of storytelling
and its traditional forms. She is especially interested in writers with strong
social media platforms who have something original to say.

There
are also five other agents at Liza Dawson Associates, all looking for new
authors. They represent many different kinds of fiction and nonfiction for
adults and young adults. Check out what they’re looking forhere.

Literary agent Olga Filinaof The Rights Factory will be our guest speaker at the"How to Get Published"workshop, Saturday, April 19,in London. Details here.

Brian
Henry will lead
a “How to Get
Published” workshop with guest speaker Martha Magor Webb of the Anne McDermid literary agency in Oakville
on Feb 22 (seehere). He’ll also lead“How to Get Published" workshops in Thessalon in Algoma on
March 23 (seehere)
and in London on April 19 (seehere).

Also,
Brian will lead a “Writing
for Children & for Young Adults” workshop
in Caledon at
the Bolton Library on Jan 18 (seehere).

Brian
also has a number of weekly courses coming up in January. You can scroll
through the details for all of them here.

He'll
lead a “Writing
your life & other true stories”on Tuesday afternoons in Burlington
(see here)
and a“Welcome to Creative Writing” course on Tuesday evenings in
Burlington (here).

Brian
will lead “Next
Step” courses on Tuesday mornings in
Burlington (see here),
Thursday afternoons in Mississauga (here)
and Thursday evenings in Georgetown (here);
and he'll lead “Intensive” courses for more experienced
writers on Wednesday afternoons in Burlington (here)
and Wednesday evenings in Mississauga (see here).

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Many
would say that this book is a refreshing retake of 17th century
Canadian History, and that the scenes of torture are difficult to read, or that
Joseph Boyden is a gifted writer. They
would all be right. But what is important about this book is the Orenda.

If
you went to Northern Ontario, stood on the grey granite turned black by rain,
smelled the fall leaves, and felt the bark of different trees, you might touch
the soul of Joseph Boyden’s TheOrenda. According to natives, the orenda is the
spirit/soul of everything. It is at the
heart of the beliefs and way of life of both the Huron (Haudenosaunee) and
Iroquois (Wendat).

The
orenda is the inner story of this book and nature is both the backdrop and
itself a character. Nature in its bounty
and cruelty define the Huron and the Iroquois.
Both tribes read the waters, listen to the winds and are one with it. Even though the two tribes are enemies
throughout the story, they are part of the same oneness with their land.

However,
when Christophe and the other Jesuits come with their sincere desire to covert
the heathen, both the Iroquois and the Huron know their uneasy balance is
upset. Both tribes know they must lure
the missionaries with their iron weapons to their side. Both know that each
will befriend the crows if they see the advantage, or torture the Jesuits if it
pleases them.

The
story begins with Bird, a Huron who has killed the family of Snow Falls, a
young Iroquois girl. Snow Falls is taken captive, along with Christophe, the
Jesuit priest. The crow, as Christophe
is called because of his black cloak and squawking tongue that neither tribe
understands, has been and will be tortured.

Joseph Boyden

Both
captives fear their fate with Bird and the Hurons, yet from those opening pages,
the three main characters are bound together in a triad of hate, suspicion,
redemption and hope. It is through Bird,
Snow Falls and Christophe that we see how their beliefs sustain them, how their
hopes rise and fall with snow, drought and constant threat of the Iroquois.

We
begin to know Bird and his love for his dead family expressed every day and
during their ceremonies which revere the dead.
Snow Falls grows up, hating and loving Bird, seeing him as a father
figure; she changes in spite of herself, and finds love with her own family.
Christophe eventually inherits two other missionaries: Isaac and Gabriel. He begins to see that despite his sufferings,
he is establishing Catholicism in the heathen world.

One
of my favourite characters is Fox, the steadfast and amusing friend of
Bird. Winter finds their tribe
starving. Bird and Fox find the tracks
of a large deer. What ensues is an epic battle between the buck and the two
Huron ending its life with bare hands and a knife.

From
these pages we see their life as a brutal reality, requiring daily valour, but
Fox affirms with pride the normalcy of their life saying, “the story of how we
got it will be a good one to tell”. Other
characters such as Sleeps Long, Carries an Axe, Hot Cinder, and Gosling play
secondary roles, but they give understanding to the complexities of the main
characters and the Huron way of life.

The
orenda/spiritual belief weaves throughout the story. Christophe, Bird and Snow Falls struggle with
their gods or spirits asking why they have been forsaken, denied while they
look for ways to appease, make amends and finding meaning. On one italicized page, Boyden, through
Aataentsic, the Huron’s ancient sky woman, says:

“...the question she (Aataentsic) begs is the
one each of us needs to ask. How do you
keep going when all that you love has been lost? ......For those with grander
ambitions, perhaps it’s this: If success
is measured in one way, then how should we measure defeat?”

Her
questions are universal. They ask fundamental questions of us all, which is why
this multilayered story resonates with readers; it takes them beyond a revision
of history or a story of old tortures long gone from the native peoples, but
not from this world.

Sally
Wyliehas recently retired from her career in Early Childhood Education. In 2012, she co-authored her 4th edition of the text titled Observing Young Children: Transforming early learning through
reflective practice with Nelson Publishing.
She has published numerous articles in Canadian Journals on subjects
relating to early childhood. She is
happy to finally be writing fiction and be part of a writing circle!

Friday, December 27, 2013

I first met you when I took a
course with you at George Brown College.
Then again at one of your Creative Writing seminars, and a “How to get
published” seminar … all of which helped me in one way or another to becoming a
published author of my first children’s middle grade novel: Blooma and the Portal, published by
Sun Dragon Press.

Blooma May Buckles is the new
girl in town. She’s adjusting fairly well to life in Japan despite the
fact that she misses her best friend back home in Canada, she has no job and
her father works too much. To make matters worse, she falls through a
portal into a different dimension and must wait one full week before she can
return home.

Turns out, the place she ends up in isn’t that bad, filled
with adventure, a pie-room, other children who have fallen through portals from
different places in the world and soccer playing robots, Blooma’s favourite
sport. Will she ever get back through the portal, back home to her
parents? And why does everyone call her Blooma when that’s not her real
name?

Hi, Brian.
I'm very excited about The Brucedale Press announcing that Aggie's Voice
will be included in their 2013 publications.

The press release states: On Agnes
Macphail's birthdate, March 24, we announced the fall publication of Aggie's
Voice by Donna Mann. This third book recreates 1908-1910 when Agnes attended
Stratford Collegiate then Stratford Normal School for her teacher training. It
ends when she begins her career at USS #7 Saugeen and Arran.

More details here.Thank you, Brian, for your ongoing workshops where as participants, we gain
valuable insight and encouragement.
Donna Mannhttp://www.donnamann.org

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

My train on tracks
Under the tree
As I sing aloud
“Thank God it’s Christmas!”
With Freddy Mercury.

Holyday’s Spirit got
In these creatures again,
I’d better save the train
And take them to my spot
Beside the fireplace,
While I have eggnog
We’ll sing along a song,
Softly purr Amazing Grace.

Cecilia-Anca
Popescu left Romania
in 1993, shortly after the Revolution. Today she is managing a chemical lab in
her country of adoption. Burdened with the nostalgia of every Romanian
immigrant, Cecilia-Anca Popescu writes about the drama of the expat, about
her life experiences, and sometimes about her cats.

Rebecca Friedman (formerly of Sterling
Lord Literistic and Sanford
Greenburger) has started her own agency. Rebecca Friedman Literary is a
full service agency, representing a wide-ranging list of fiction and
non-fiction authors.

Rebecca is interested in commercial and literary fiction with a
focus on literary novels of suspense, women’s fiction, contemporary romance,
and young adult, as well as journalistic nonfiction and memoir. “Most of all," she says, "we are looking for great stories told in strong voices.”

Authors are requested to submit a query letter and first chapter (no more than fifteen pages double-spaced) to: Abby@rfliterary.com

Brian Henry will lead a “How to Get Published" workshop with guest speaker Martha Magor
Webb of the Anne
McDermid literary agency in Oakville on Feb 22 (seehere).
He’ll also lead“How to Get Published" workshops in Thessalon in Algoma on March 23 (seehere)
and in London on April 19 (seehere).

Also, Brian will
lead a “Writing for Children & for
Young Adults” workshop in Caledon at the Bolton Library on Jan 18 (seehere).

Brian also has a number of weekly
courses coming up in January. You can scroll through the details for all of them here.

He'll lead a “Writing your life & other true stories”on Tuesday afternoons in
Burlington (see here) and a “Welcome to Creative Writing” course on Tuesday evenings in Burlington (here).

Brian will lead “Next Step” courses on Tuesday mornings in Burlington (see here), Thursday afternoons in Mississauga (here) and Thursday evenings in Georgetown (here); and he'll lead “Intensive” courses for more
experienced writers on Wednesday afternoons in Burlington (here) and Wednesday evenings in Mississauga (see here).

Monday, December 23, 2013

We've got our power back! Spent yesterday with the family. Took eldest child shopping and actually found a store that was open. They only had emergency lighting and no escalators, but they were carrying on, nonetheless! Hope everyone else is doing okay, too.

Kim McDonaldlives
in Brampton, Ontario, with her husband, two children and loveable but stubborn
Boxer Lab. Inspired as a child by the poems of Shel Silverstein, she is rediscovering
her love of poetry and the lighter side of life. You can read more poems by Kim McDonald here
andhere.

Brian Henry has been a book editor, writer, and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He teaches creative writing at Ryerson University. He also leads weekly creative writing courses in Burlington, Mississauga, Oakville and Georgetown and conducts Saturday workshops throughout Ontario. His proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get published.